Every March, during Women's History Month, the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association celebrates excellence in healthcare leadership and honors remarkable individuals making a difference in the industry.
Meet this year's honorees from Amgen, who have distinguished themselves through their outstanding leadership, strong commitment to mentoring and empowering their teams, and passion for advancing Amgen's mission to serve patients.
Driving Better Outcomes: Janet Franklin, MD, MPH
A 2024 HBA Luminary Award Winner, Janet Franklin is a trained pediatric hematologist/oncologist, who currently serves as vice president of Global Development for Biosimilars at Amgen.
During her interview process 16 years ago, Franklin remembers being excited by Amgen's innovation, as well as the connection to her previous clinical research work. Above all, she was drawn to the opportunity to magnify her impact, by helping to drive positive health outcomes for entire populations at once, versus one patient at a time.
Franklin, also a past recipient of Fiercest Women in Life Sciences, credits much of her success to mentors who encouraged her to grow by embracing professional challenges that were intimidating to her. This is one of the reasons it's important for her to share experiences and guidance to the next generation of researchers and scientists.
"I had several touchpoints with Franklin over the past year and I continue to be inspired by her leadership" describes Omar Barnaby, senior principal scientist in Bioanalytical Sciences. "As a mentor, she has driven home the message of embracing change and continued growth. Franklin's career demonstrates to me how adaptability to change can fuel personal and organizational excellence."
Inspired by the transformative impact of mentors on her career, Franklin champions the importance of mentorship for women and members of underrepresented groups and has become deeply involved in diversity, inclusion and belonging (DI&B) initiatives at Amgen. She's also committed to paying forward her hard-earned wisdom to her team, by encouraging them to be passionate, curious, and open to new opportunities that may challenge their comfort zone.
"Mentorship can – and should – get personal," Franklin explains. "To be effective, we must share our personal experiences and provide guidance on how to navigate tough situations."
Authentic Leadership: Michelle Carrillo
Authenticity is the hallmark of Michelle Carrillo's approach to leadership, and to life. As associate vice president, Corporate Affairs, Global Commercial Operations, at Amgen, this philosophy helped drive her recognition, alongside Franklin, as a 2024 HBA Luminary Award Winner.
The daughter of Cuban immigrants, Carrillo began her career as a government intern after graduating college and eventually moved up the ranks to lead trade deal negotiations and defend intellectual property rights and patent protections in other countries as part of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. She joined Amgen 12 years ago when the company was looking to expand into Latin America.
"She leads with the perfect mix of head and heart," describes Linda Murakami, director of Advocacy Relations. "She is authentic, caring and hardworking." Throughout their six years of working together, Murakami credits Carrillo's business savvy and empathetic leadership style in helping to successfully navigate a host of complex business changes.
"During the pandemic, I had a one-year-old and a three-year-old," Carrillo says. "It was chaos, but I chose not to hide it. I wanted my team to see that I'm a wife, a mom, a professional and that life can get messy. I'm not afraid to put reporting lines aside to be accessible to my team, and in fact anyone from across the organization, and for them to know that I have their backs."
Carrillo hopes her authentic approach inspires her team to grow, thrive and continue being resilient and fearless, as they passionately work towards meeting patient needs. "Witnessing the profound impact we have on patients' lives Is not only immensely fulfilling but also humbling. Their invaluable input not only shapes how we approach delivering our medicines but resonates with the very core of Amgen's mission.
Growth Mindset: Tiffany Thiel, PhD
Tiffany Thiel, associate vice president of Process Development, is a 2024 Rising Star Award Winner.
From an early age, Thiel was inspired by her parents' empowering philosophy to "do the hard work" and always keep learning. This growth mindset has served as a north star throughout her professional career.
Thiel holds a PhD in Chemistry and will celebrate 20 years with Amgen in August. In that time, she has held many roles and responsibilities across multiple modalities and phases of molecule development. Thiel currently leads a team responsible for quality attribute characterization and control for every product in late-stage clinical development.
As Thiel's former manager, Chetan Goudar, vice president of Manufacturing and Clinical Supply, was not surprised to learn of Thiel's "Rising Star" honor. "Thiel's team adores her," shares Gouder. "She is a people-focused leader who has an inspiring style of her own and leads with the highest integrity. She faces complex and difficult problems head-on, identifies solutions and delivers results."
Reflecting on her proudest accomplishments over the years, Thiel says, "Any time we have a marketing application approved and we know a product is going to reach a patient who needs it, I am proud. It also warms my heart when I see a team member advancing within the organization or taking on a stretch assignment and knocking it out of the park."
Her passion for personal growth has also led Thiel to sit on the Global Operations DI&B Council and serve as the DI&B lead in Cambridge. "Beyond the celebration of diversity, I also feel like my role is to make sure we can come together as a connected community and have the hard discussions related to diversity," she says. "It is important to me that staff has a safe space to learn and share their experiences, so we can all grow in our own respective diversity journeys."
We congratulate Franklin, Carrillo and Thiel for their well-deserved honor, and thank them for their contributions to Amgen and the patients we serve.
